Charlie’s First Bath

Charlie has been in the family for about two weeks now, and there has been a definite doggy smell around him that has been growing stronger and stronger. Josh and I decided that it was about time to give him a bath. Armed with puppy-shampoo, a little shower-hose and some old towels, we cleared out the bathroom and put some nice warm water in the tub. Now for the real challenge – getting Charlie into the bath.

He seemed most unimpressed that we had woken him up. But he didn’t put up too much of a fight when Josh picked him up and carried him into the bathroom (probably because he had no idea what was coming!).

Look at that peaceful, sleepy little face, poor thing didn’t know he was headed for the tub!

Josh lowered him carefully into the bath and that was when the fun began. Charlie took to the water with quite a lot of excitement – I think he was partially terrified and partially curious about the water.

He tried to escape several times, jumping up on the edge of the bath with his little paws flailing about. It took the two of us to actually keep him inside the bath – he was very determined that enough was enough.

We put one of his favourite toys, a little blue ball, in the bath with him to try and calm him down. It seemed to work a little bit, though he does look kind of reproachful in the next photo, doesn’t he?

While he was calm, he sat down for a bit and allowed us to work the shampoo into his coat. For a little while it seemed like he was almost enjoying the relaxing spa and masssage treatment, with not one but two people rubbing him down all over.

But then it was time for another quick escape attempt! He jumped up all over my legs and soaked my jeans. But I didn’t mind too much, because look how cute he is:

Charlie started shivering, so we decided that it was time to rinse all of that shampoo off and get him dry. Somehow we managed to get him to stand still for a little while so Josh could shower him off.

Then came the really trick part – getting him out of the bath and drying him. I lifted him up and Josh wrapped him in a towel. We towel-dried him a little bit and let him shake himself off before we got out the hair-dryer. It’s pretty cold at the moment and we didn’t want to leave him too damp, so the hair-dryer seemed like the best option. We had it on a low heat setting and were very careful to hold it far enough away from him so that he wouldn’t get too hot or burnt.

He took quite a lot of drying – he was a very wet pup.

Josh sat down on the chair with a towel over his legs and Charlie on his lap. I grabbed them another towel to put on top and to pat him dry with.

The whole first-bathtime experience mustn’t have been too traumatic for him, because the next thing we knew he was fast asleep on Josh’s lap.

About an hour later I took him outside for a pee and a little run around. Surprisingly, he didn’t roll around in the dirt – he kept himself nice and clean.

Now the little guy is all dry and back to his usual fluffy self. He even smells good too!